


Noodle is though

by DeadlyBacon



Category: Gorillaz
Genre: Drinking, Family Fluff, Mild Language, Panic Attack, Smoking, Social Phobia, i just want them to be a happy trash family, mention of gay noodle later, noodle centered, short fic, they're still trash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-09 12:49:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11104902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadlyBacon/pseuds/DeadlyBacon
Summary: Noodle isn't scared of anything, she fights ghosts, zombies and demons, she has to be fearless ! Right . . ?Just a short excuse to write some cute gorillaz family fluff, i just need it.





	1. Snake nest

**Author's Note:**

> i might do some mistakes about the character's backstories but remembering all of it is hard man, im sorry if i do  
> and just a reminder that im french so if there are misspells and all, just tell me please  
> enjoy !

Just a few days after receiving a guitarist in a fedex crate, the band started considering that has been put between their hands, an actual child. A weird child, indeed, but a child. 

Noodle seemed to get acclimated to living with them pretty quickly, following them around and doing the things they were doing. Better for her to follow Russel than Murdoc, even if the bassist rarely noticed her.   
She was so small and silent, when she wasn’t blasting inapprehensible jabbering as loud as her little voice allowed her. They were all trying their best to understand what she was trying to tell them, but they mostly had to rely on her frenetic gestures and a lot of intuitive deductions. It took them a while to get that her shouting wasn’t screams of pain but just that Noodle wanted a glass of water.   
After 5 days living with her, they still knew nothing about her, apart from the fact that she was an incredible guitarist, even if the said object that came with her in the crate was twice her size. They felt blessed at first to get a guitarist so easily, but quickly understood that something about her was odd. 

Nevertheless, she was part of the band and now living with them. She didn’t really have a dedicated room in Kong studios, even if the place had more rooms than they needed . She just happened to fall asleep in some random places, including the kitchen sink and the doormat. You just had to be careful to not step on her. 

 

But it had just stroke them on that Tuesday morning (or was it midday already ?), while watching Noodle struggling to eat cereals with the end of a spoon and a plastic straw, that she was a child indeed, and maybe needed a special care. None of them were really accustomed to children care so they couldn’t tell.  
“Don’t children need to go to school ?” 2D asked himself out loud. “At eight you still go to school right ?”  
“How do you know she’s eight ?” Murdoc hissed, pouring tequila in a soup bowl.   
“She said it. Firs’ day, don’t you remember ?”  
“All i remember is you idiot asking her where she came from and moppet holding eight fingers in reply” Murdoc dipped a frozen chip in his bowl.  
“It has to be her age, she looks eight to me. Am I right Noods ?” He cheered at the little girl.  
Hearing the nickname, Noodle lifted her head and started a new jabbering that lasted two solid minutes before she went back on chewing a mouthful of milk-soaked cereals. Little brat must have an hearing impairment to yell like that every time she opens her mouth  
“See ? She eight.” 2D concluded.  
“Cause you speak russian now ?” Murdoc growled.  
“I’m pretty sure it’s japanese Muds.”  
Murdoc grumbled “You can’t speak that either”, and drank his whole bowl of tequila in one gulp. He violently pushed himself away from the kitchen table, making his chair fall over and left the room, still mumbling quietly about how much these people were a ache to live with. 

Later that day, Noodle was on Russel’s shoulders, on their way with 2D to the local primary school. The little girl couldn’t stop smiling. She always seemed so happy to do anything with them, whether it was buying groceries, brushing teeth or getting yelled at by Murdoc so she would play the tune he wanted, she was always joyful. After a long thinking, 2D and Russel thought that Noodle indeed needed to go to school, after remembering that they were in school at this age too.   
“You ‘gonna have fun in school Noods.” Russel spoke gently to the child. “Gonna make friends and all, maybe you’ll finally learn to speak english.”

It would indeed be useful if Noodle could learn some english words to make herself understood instead of shouting in japanese. The only words the band had got from her so far were their names, the word “noodle” that she said on her first day out of the fedex crate and one time she yelled “fuck” with loud laughter after Murdoc’s swearing when he hit his toe in the doorframe. Some other words would be welcomed.

At the primary school, a thirty years old woman who was apparently a teacher, welcomed them with a very confused look but but felt the need to have a talk with them. 

She made Russel and 2D sit on tiny children chairs in an empty classroom while the children were on break to understand their request a little better. Noodle had been asked to stay outside in the playground with the other children, all stuck in a yellow raincoat, zipped to the chin to block the now falling rain.  
The place looked like a prison decorated by 5 years-olds with miniature versions of classic school furniture, the paint stains in bonus.   
The teacher began the complicated task of getting to know more about these two men arriving in the middle of the day asking if there was a place for their child that seemed to be named after a kind of pastas. Plus these guys were odd, a skinny pretty boy with pitch black eyes staring at the kitten poster behind her and a man, white milk eyed, so large the classroom seemed suddenly very narrow, how come they were in charge of a eight years old ?

“So, did you just moved in the neighbourhood ?” She asked, nicely.  
“Oh no we’ve been here fo’ a while.” 2D responded. “It’s Noodle who jus’ arrived.”  
“ In a Fedex crate.” Russel added.  
“Yeah jus’ left on our doorstep. We were looking fo’ a guitarist you see.”  
The teacher remained silent, squinting her eyes.

Out in the playground, Noodle was a fascinating creature to the children. Unable to understand any of the things she has been yelling at them, they were just staring at her in little groups from afar.   
Noodle on her side, seemed fascinated by marks on the dirt she was following, never looking away from it. With amused giggles, the other children watched walk frenetically to the dense bushes at the end of the playground and sink head first into it. She disappeared for enough time to make all the chuckling stop and get replaced by a heavy silence.

“So, huh-Noodle doesn’t speak any word of English.” The teacher stated, completely stunned.   
“She can say some words.” Russel acknowledge. “But not much, she can read music sheets, though, ‘most important if you ask me.”  
The teacher grabbed her head in two hands and sighed loudly. Should she call the police or the social services first ? She didn’t even managed to get that girl’s last name. She was starting to get headaches.

Their conversation got suddenly cut by terrible screeching of pure terror coming from outside. Standing up, the teacher could see several kids racing back into the school building by the window, panic clearly visible on their little faces. She immediately ran outside, followed by the two men, curious to see what was making the kids scream.

 

At the end of the playground, Noodle was circled by a compact group of scared youth, some of them running away, standing fifteen feet away from her and staring in horror. Noodle on her side seemed joyful, proud to show out the nest of snakes she had found in the bush, holding a few of them in her arms.   
As she was shouting another one of her jabbering, the snakes were wiggling away from her grip, pouring on the floor like a never ending waterfall of reptiles.  
While she was proud of her catch, the children started pointing fingers. Backing away from her and the snakes, screams started to mix with words.   
“She’s a freak !”  
“Don’t go near her !”  
In a instant, Noodle dropped her smile, not understanding the words of course, but the fearful looks, the whole group keeping a distance from her and running away, like she was some kind of monster.   
She froze, dropping her arms and the snakes at the same time, scanning the crowd and then dropping her look to her now empty hands.  
A last snake fled back in the bush as the rest of the children started running towards the building as well, throwing worried looks behind their shoulders at the strange girl. Noodle stayed at her spot for a second and then started running full speed as well, but instead of getting inside the school, she stopped at 2D and Russel who had watched the whole scene from their spot.

For the first time ever, they saw the little girl cry. She was holding on 2D’s leg, weeping silently as he watched her, completely puzzled. Even not seeing her smile was weird to him, he didn’t know how to react to Noodle crying and it made the teacher frown again.   
Russel however, picked her up, making her let go of her grip on 2D’s pants which were now wet and held her against his shoulder. Noodle snuggled against him, shook by a few sobs. Still confused, 2D patted her back in an attempt of comforting her.

“We’re going home.” Russel stated to the teacher with a stern voice.  
“No, no !” She snapped. “I’m calling the social services, you’re not going away with this child !”  
“We’re. Going.” He added, louder and right to her face.

She froze on her spot, as Russel passed over her and walked firmly to the exit, quickly followed by 2D. The teacher watched them pass the school gate, still considering calling the police but as they were going away, she remembered she had no idea who they were, not a name, not an adress, just a child with a pasta name. She grumbled and went back inside to attempt to retrieve all the scared kids. 

“I won’t leave you with them, kid.” Russel reassured Noodle as they were walking back to the car. “They’re bad people, we won’t leave you alone.”  
To these words, he could feel the child calming down, even if he doubted she understood any of that.

Just a few weeks later from this incident, Noodle was out in the graveyard surrounding Kong Studios, playing in an old wasted car that appeared a few days ago with nobody knowing where this junk came from. Noodle seemed to enjoy it pretty much though, sitting at the driver’s seat and turning the broken wheel.   
Russel walked to her as she was busy with another loud monologue to herself and imitating car noises. 

“Hey kid.” He called her. “Watcha got there ?”  
Jumping on her seat, she turned to him with a big smile.  
“Russel ! Car !” She exclaimed, proud to show her newly learned english vocabulary. “Car kill zombies !” She laughed.  
“Oh you wanna roll over the zombies with ya new ride ?” Russel chuckled.  
“Kill zombies ! Fuck !” Noodle shouted again.

She seemed to be very amused by their recent encounter with the zombies popping up around Kong Studios. After all, why would she be scared of them when she could take them down in one kick. The child was really full of surprises, first the guitar skills and now fighting.   
They also started to make her sing sometimes, even if she wasn’t comfortable to sing in english, she was enjoying singing with 2D a lot and had quite a nice voice.

Since they didn’t wanted her in school, they tried to teach her english as much as they could. Russel was working with her the most, Murdoc not even having the patience to explain something to anybody and 2D having troubles with following tasks and organizing himself. He was better at having fun with her. 

She had made a lot of progress, starting to make simple sentences and slowly dropping off the habit of shouting in japanese. Only the habit of saying ‘fuck’ stayed, she loved that word and no one knew how to explain her why it was bad to say it. 

Despise all the stuff happening, Noodle looked to be a perfectly normal and healthy child. She was joyful, energetic, and full of surprises. The only weird thing Russel struggled to understand was why the incident at the school was the only she cried about. She had been fighting zombies, dealing with a ghost, living in one of the creepiest place on earth but a bunch of kids was the thing that got the tears out of her ?   
Odd, for sure. But maybe she wasn’t really used to people he thought. It’ll probably get better as she grow up.


	2. how to protect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it took me a while to update, i was pretty busy (including seeing gorillaz in concert it was a m a z i n g) and i have problems with my hand so it slows me down a lot.

It’s at the age of ten that Noodle was given her own bedroom. Said to be the best bedroom at Kong studios, even if they barely knew half of the forty-nine bedrooms in all the building. Quickly, she asked for her room to be decorated in a japanese style, to make herself feel more at home probably.   
Her bedroom was large and very comfortable, while the others were sleeping in junk-filled cupboards. Noodle avoided going there as most as she could, it was worse than all the common rooms.  
The kitchen, the living room, the bathroom, they were all trashed. It was like waking up on the mess of a party every morning. By now she was used to it. As most as she could, she tried to keep everyone out to preserve her room from the invading mess. 

After she cleaned off the building of all the zombies, the place had never been cleaner. But it didn’t last.

The most the gang was busy, the more mess there was, and it was pretty important these days. Even Noodle’s room started to get messy, but she had a lot of work to do. 

Now that they were all back at Kong Studio’s and all working on the album, the place started to feel more like home again. It smelled like cheap alcohol and cold cigarette almost everywhere. There was always low sounds of distant music and the television was constantly on but no one was ever watching it.  
The upcoming album was keeping them pretty busy so they had less time to fight each other and get very drunk, but they still managed to have this kind of activities sometimes. 

Indeed, on that day, Murdoc had made himself pretty drunk. He had let himself down on the old green armchair in the living room, staring blankly at the television. He was kicking in the empty bottles at his feet, grumbling to himself.   
He had a strong smell of cold sweat stuck to him, mixing with the scent of cheap booze coming out of the bottles. Everyone knew it was better to avoid Murdoc on this kind of situation.  
Therefore, Noodle didn’t see 2D anywhere since she woke up. She thought it was better for him to stay there, wherever he was.  
Even if she wasn’t scared of Murdoc at all since she was able to take him down whenever she wanted, she prefered to avoid him when he was drunk. He could get annoying pretty quickly and fighting for real wasn’t something she enjoyed doing with her bandmates.

In order to get to the kitchen to get something to eat and calm her rumbling stomach, Noodle had to walk across the living room. It looked like a real challenge since it was so messy. She could already see all the chances of getting a broken ankle on all that stuff. Especially the pile of empty bottles behind the couch.   
Trying to see the safest path in this piggery, she started tiptoeing through the room. Staring at her feet to make sure she wasn’t gonna step on something dangerous. Noodle winced when her foot landed on a old shirt that felt wet and sticky under her toes but kept on going. As her eyes were focused on the ground, she didn’t noticed she was approaching the armchair and Murdoc was staring at her weird little dance around the trash.

He suddenly grabbed her arm in a clumsy move. The surprise almost made her fall on the tower of pizza boxes. She froze and raised her eyes to him in an annoyed groan. She tried to pull her hand away but the bastard was holding well.  
“Hey moppet !” He barked in his hoarse voice. “Make yourself useful, buy me cigs.”  
“What ?” Noodle titled her head.  
“What is it that you don’t get lazy head ?!” Murdoc spatted. “Cigarettes ! Now !”  
She paused.  
“But it’s Saturday afternoon, it’s crowded everywhere.” Noodle replied, lower.  
“What’s your fucking problem ?” He shook her arm slightly, searching his pocket for coins with his free hand.  
“I-I don’t want to go.”   
“But you will go, who’s boss h-”  
“I won’t go !” Noodle shouted, her voice starting to quiver. She was trying to pull herself away from Murdoc’s grip way harder now.  
“What’s wrong with you ?!” He grabbed her arm with his other hand as she kept pulling.  
“I won’t ! I won’t !” She kept yelling, tears forming in her eyes.  
“Are you fucking nuts ?! Stop that !”

Suddenly, another hand, way larger, grabbed Noodle’s arm, pulling hard enough to make Murdoc loose his grip. Russel pulled the young girl closer to him.  
“The hell is wrong with you Mudz ?!” Russel exclaimed to the confused man. “She’s a kid ! Can’t you ever stop torturing people ?!”  
“It’s her !” Murdoc pointed. “I just asked her to buy me cigarettes and she went crazy ! It’s not my fault everybody is fucking psycho here !” He sank into his armchair, crossing his arms like a pestered child.  
Russel could feel Noodle breathing heavily and slightly shaking against him. Across the room he spotted 2D, peeking at the door frame. The noise must have worried him.  
He passed his large hand in Noodle’s hair, letting her lean against him.  
“Are you okay babygirl ?” He softly asked.   
Murdoc turned his look away and spotted 2D too. He just had to let out a low groan to make him run away like a scared rabbit. He hated that feel of guilt.  
“I’m sorry.” Noodle finally spoke. “I got scared, i overreacted.” She laid her eyes on Murdoc.  
Even if she was fourteen and most of the time looked older, at this very moment Murdoc saw a terrified child before him. He froze for an instant.  
Feeling the alcohol loosing its effect on him, he sighed.   
“I shouldn’t have yelled.”

Taking this as the best apology Murdoc could express. Russel lifted Noodle like she was nothing more than a bag of feathers. Thereby she jumped across the living room and landed in the kitchen which was way clearer.  
“Get yourself some water, Murdoc can go buy his cigarettes himself.”  
Noodle nodded with a tiny smile as murdoc sighed and pathetically stood up from his chair.  
Russel had a small chuckle as he looked at him go.

 

“Come on, I’ll go with you.”  
Murdoc was offering his hand to the curled up child he found under the table in the tour van. It was their first concert after the release of the new album Demon Days.   
Everything had been going as planned, the crowd was over excited, screaming and shouting for the band to come on stage. They were all ready to perform, they had been rehearsing to make everything perfect for this very night, but as they were about to make an epic entrance, Murdoc took a last look at his band only to notice that his guitarist had disappeared.

At first they all panicked, thought something bad had happened to Noodle. They called for her, hardly making more noise than the public getting impatient. They all looked around the stage, asked the staff is they saw where she went. Oddly everyone was clueless.  
While everyone was searching the obvious places, like the toilets, Murdoc rushed immediately back to the tour van. As he was expecting, he found Noodle hiding there, all shaking and whimpering like a hurt animal.

She was sniffing loudly, wiping the tears on her cheeks with the back of her hand. She stared at Murdoc for a moment, it felt weird to see him with such a calm face.  
She grabbed his hand cautiously and he helped her get back on her feet.   
“You used to be scared of the crowd when you were a kid, so 2D always walked with you on the stage while grabbing your hand right ?” Murdoc asked.  
She nodded.  
“We go together. Screw the epic entrance !” He chuckled.  
Noodle looked up to him with a weak smile, her grasp on his hand getting a little tighter.   
She was ready now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry this chapter is a little shorter, i'll try to write more for the next one, thanks for reading !


End file.
